In the Eastern Skies, a Crow Flies
by chxra
Summary: Playing volleyball was enough to ground him down to reality. He didn't expect ancient stories to come chasing after him and forcing him to believe that they were true, however. [Warning: Haikyuu! spoilers, certain plot changes]
1. The Meeting that wasn't Supposed to Be

****Chapter 1****

He didn't think that anything couldn't be normal again after he finds an injured crow next to the vending machine.

****xxx****

Crows had a tendency to gather around Karasuno at times. No one was really sure why, but most never even minded it, let alone paid attention. Especially for Kageyama Tobio, Karasuno's genius setter, and one of the well-known duo in volleyball alongside the second-year, Ennoshita Chikara.

As the once-nicknamed "King of the Court" by his former team of Kitagawa Daiichi, Kageyama brought back Karasuno to its former glory by going through the Inter-High Tournament and reaching the top as one of the top four teams.

He couldn't help but feel that something was off from all of those games he had played, though. In away, the sunshine that was supposed to make volleyball gleam with appeal was lacking.

One day, when Kageyama found a tiny, injured crow huddling next to the vending machine where he usually gets his drinks, he was surprised. When he saw the injured wing, the surprise took him further. He was sure that crows take care of their young, as he had learned from Ennoshita just the day before. (But he wasn't even sure if this crow was as young as he had thought it to be. It looked like it was supposed to be full grown, yet he couldn't even tell. It was so tiny.)

Making up his mind, he sighed and, once he chose a drink, he bent down to gently pick up the tiny bird. As soon as he picked it up, he immediately expected some sort of retaliation (since he was still worried about the fact that animals hated him), and he quickly closed his eyes.

When nothing happened, he reluctantly opened one of his eyes to look at the crow. It didn't do anything except look at him with its unusually big eyes, and it gestured to its broken wing. (In the back of Kageyama's mind, he wondered why it was so small compared to other crows. Was it still a baby?)

Blinking multiple times, it took him a few moments to realize that this was the first animal that hadn't tried to attack him in any form. It was like a burst of sunlight had just passed through him, and he jumped up and whooped. (Immediately after, however, he looked around his surroundings quickly to see if there wasn't any witnesses.)

Grinning, he picked up his bag and jogged towards the club room just across the gym. He felt that somebody was able to help the crow out in the club, and he also hoped that they didn't take his smile the wrong way once he went inside.

Once he entered the club room with an air of excitement still about him, he found Tanaka and Nishinoya lazing around the room, and Sugawara was reading a book with his headphones on. They looked up at him, surprised about his sudden appearance, and they immediately flinched. (When they saw his smile and the bird that looked like it was injured, they thought he had tried to get revenge by hurting an animal [which was super cruel and nobody was supposed to do that] - because who didn't know that animals hated him? And was it just them or was he holding a baby crow in his hands - ?!)

Not wanting to confirm everybody's [fear-induced] suspicions, Sugawara cleared his throat and spoke up.

"…Kageyama? What's wrong?" he asked a bit tentatively, removing one of his headphones and giving him a concerned look. The younger setter suddenly remembered the reason why he was there in the first place.

"I-I found this injured bird," Kageyama stammered, "and I thought that someone around here can help it, and… well…"

The room was quiet for a passing moment. The three were so wrong in their judgment. Fortunately, Noya broke the silence and sighed loudly in relief.

"Oh, good! I thought you hurt the bird on purpose or somethi - GAH!" Tanaka slapped a hand over his mouth and laughed loudly. (Kageyama swore there was a hint of nervousness in his laugh.)

"Ah, well… bring it here," Sugawara said, and motioned for Kageyama to sit next to him. "I know a thing or two about helping birds, but not as much as Ennoshita-san."

"Right…" Kageyama made his way to the older setter, and sat down next to him. Putting down his book, Sugawara examined the bird with interest.

"It's so tiny… It's wing is slightly injured, but I'm sure it's not that bad as it seems," he said brightly. Gently taking the bird from Kageyama's hands (and was unaware of the other boy's reluctance; Kageyama took a sudden liking to that bird), Sugawara examined the bird further and, after a moment's pause, blinked in confusion.

"…that's strange," he muttered. By that time, Noya and Tanaka already made their way next to the older boy and looked over his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Lemme see - argh, Noya! Your hair's in the way!"

"What did you say?! Don't disrespect the hair - "

While the two were bickering, Kageyama glanced upward at Sugawara. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Before the older boy could answer, the door to the room burst open, and Daichi, along with Asahi, entered the room, carrying bags of lunch.

"Osu," the captain greeted, only to be met with more bickering from Noya and Tanaka. He immediately glared at the two.

"Oi, you two! Stop with the fighting - "

"Asahiii! Did you bring the snack you promised me?"

"Ah! I forgot! Ohmygoshi'msosorryi'mtrashipromisetobringitnexttimeiswear - "

"Oh my God, someone get Asahi some water - "

"Will everybody please shut up for a minute and let me handle this in peace?" A calm voice cut through the confusion, and the boys (besides Kageyama) looked up at Sugawara in surprise, who didn't even take his eyes off of the bird.

"Now where was I…" Holding up the bird against the light, he peered at its injured wing. Now intrigued, the rest of the boys in the room went and looked over his shoulder.

"…do you see that? That feather right there… is it just me, or does it look a bit… orange to you?"

The boys huddled and looked intensely at the bird in Sugawara's hands. Sure enough, a tiny down feather had a light streak of orange on it. It wasn't enough orange where one can see it with a quick glance, but when it's looked at further, then it's visible.

"…but why - " Before Asahi could finish his sentence, the bird squirmed, suddenly jumped up and hopped his way over to Kageyama. It then hid behind him, as if it was spooked from all the stares it was receiving.

The group all blinked together in surprise, and one by one, they all began to laugh.

"It looks like the crow likes you!"

"D-Does it really…?" Kageyama twisted around to look at the tiny crow, and scooped it up. He stared at it, and it stared back. After a moment's passing, it cheeped at him. Kageyama felt immediately felt

thunderstruck. _An animal really likes me! OH MY GOD -_

Before he managed to think any further, Sugawara broke though his thoughts. "Now, now, that's enough," he chastised, and, got up with a smile. "I'll go see if we have anything that could help the bird's wing, okay?" He went to the closet of the club room, where the first aid kit was located.

"We'll go out for a bit!" Noya called, and Tanaka got up with him. The two shared sneaky smiles, and without missing a beat, Daichi grabbed the two's back collars and smiled ominously.

"Please don't harass Kiyoko-san in front of the others, got it?" he asked, albeit nicely. The two flinched, and Daichi sighed and pushed Asahi towards them.

"Babysit them for me."

"But why - "

"He'll do a bad job at it!" Tanaka shot back, and earned himself a glare from Daichi.

"Then I'll be the one to watch you two! Now, go on! Pretend I'm not there!" Pushing the two ahead (while dragging an unwilling Asahi along with him), the group bickered and closed the door, leaving Kageyama on his own with the bird as he stared after them. The boy sweat dropped. _He's so much like a dad… what the heck…_

The club room was quiet. Clouds slowly passed by as he watched them through the window, light filtering through. He wondered what was taking Sugawara so long.

"They're loud, don't you think?" a voice suddenly asked, and Kageyama nodded absently.

"…yeah…"

It took him a moment to realize that the voice didn't belong to Sugawara.

Kageyama immediately jumped up, and looked around the room. "W-Who's there?!"

"Here!"

"Where?!"

"Over. Here!" There was a cheep of a bird, and Kageyama looked down at his feet in surprise. It was the crow. It stared up at him with its large eyes.

"Finally, I can talk at last! If I talked to you while the others were there, I was sure to have caused a scene!"

The setter stared at the crow, and jumped backward in surprise until his back met with the wall.

"T-The bird talks…" he stammered. _But that's impossible!_ As if he had heard his thoughts clearly, the tiny crow huffed.

"Well, yeah! What kind of tengu am I if I can't talk?" After finishing its sentence, the bird ruffled its feathers and looked back up at him, as if it was grinning.

"The name's Hinata! Nice to meet you, Kageyama Tobio!"

**/ chapter 1 end /**

* * *

****And there it is - my very first story about these volleyball nerds *awkward single tear* (and of course it needed some kind of fantasy twist *headdesks*) This is actually a pretty short chapter that it's almost like some sort of prologue, ugh... I'll have the other chapters be longer than 1500 words next time! I swear!****

****Please critique and review; I'll appreciate it very much!****

****See you in the next chapter!****


	2. Shocking Orange

****Chapter ********2****

He wanted reality to catch up with him sooner or later. It didn't, though.

****xxx****

Kageyama wasn't sure how to act in his current predicament – but he calmed himself down enough to know that causing a ruckus would only serve to catch Sugawara's attention. He was about to hiss out a question towards the crow when the said senpai walked back inside the club room, and noticed that Kageyama was now noticeably far away from the baby crow that he had seemed to like earlier.

"...are you okay?" Suga asked, blinking in confusion. Kageyama nodded hastily.

"Na- of- yes!" he stammered, and the older boy laughed.

"No need to be nervous for the baby crow. He's going to be fine," Suga reassured, and Kageyama snapped his gaze back to the crow that was staring back at him. It looked like it was still grinning at him, and soon enough, Kageyama was locked into a staring contest showdown with the crow.

...but it didn't speak.

_Why isn't it talking? _Kageyama thought as he was staring down at the crow. _It was talking earlier. Why isn't it talking now? Was it just my imagination?_

"...Kageyama?"

_Speak, crow! Tell me I'm not losing my mind!_

"Kageyama."

_Oh my God, it's not talking. Maybe I'm deprived of sleep for coming back home from practice so late. I'm not insane, I'm just sleepy, that's all -_

"Kageyama!"

Someone suddenly slapped him upside the head, and the boy nearly fell towards the floor but managed to stop himself. Grumbling under his breath, he held the back of his head and looked up to find Suga with his right hand up and his expression showing both concern and confusion.

"I've been calling your name for a while now, except you didn't answer and all you did instead was stare at the crow like he had just committed mass murder," he sighed, and got up. "Either way, the crow's fine now. I'll put go ahead and put back the kit." The older boy walked off once again, and when the third year was out of sight, the crow in front of him ruffled its feathers and examined its bandaged wing.

"He's really good at this kind of stuff!" the crow exclaimed, and jumped up and down. "I'll be able to fly in no time!" Kageyama glared down at the crow.

"Oh, _now _you talk!" he hissed quietly. "You made me look like an idiot, dumbass Hinata!"

"Hey! We barely met and you're already calling me that?" Hinata huffed, and stopped jumping. He (or at least Kageyama assumed that the crow was a boy) looked away, and with his wings he patted down his messy feathers and gave the ground a glare.

"'I can't decide between milk or juice. Because of that, I'm gonna go kill someone!'" the crow grumbled under his breath.

"Oi! Was that supposed to be an imitation of me?!" Kageyama hissed.

"You have the look of a serial killer!"

"I was _born _with this face! I couldn't do anything about it, okay?!" Before he was about to let off a string of insults that only consisted of the words _dumbass, idiot, _and_ Hinata, _Kageyama stopped.

"...wait. How do you know my name? And how do you know about the drinks I choose?" he asked suspiciously. Hinata jumped, and looked away, as if he was suddenly nervous and had slipped up on some kind of truth.

"I... I see you from where I'm at all the time!" he stammered, and ruffled his feathers once more. "

...okay, now _that _was embarrassing.

"What the hell do you mean _you see me from where you are?!" _Kageyama hissed, his ears scarlet. Of all things, a _crow _was watching him. Like what a girl would do if she had a crush. (WHAT - ) He was sure he was going insane at the moment, but the door burst open and Tanaka ran inside.

"Yo! How's it going?!"  
Kageyama stared at the wing spiker.

"...didn't you just go outside?" he asked Tanaka. The older boy sighed, and sat down, running a hand over his head. (Kageyama wondered if the senpai's lack of hair was genetic – and proceeded to mentally slap himself. He was sure Tanaka would kick his ass even if he mentioned it.)

"We passed by a hallway, Asahi was jumpscared, Noya retaliated violently, and Daichi was there to see the entire thing... you can tell what happened next," Tanaka summarized, and glanced at Hinata. "Ah, the little crow looks all better now!"

At the mention of the tiny crow next to Kageyama, the setter immediately – and unconsciously - reverted to a sour expression. Tanaka flinched.

"Whoa. What put a twist in your pants?" Tanaka asked cheekily, and laughed as Kageyama gave him a bewildered look. "I mean, I mention the crow and all of a sudden you look like you were choosing another drink in the vending machine!"

"I – what – shut up!" Kageyama stammered. "...it's nothing." The older boy rolled his eyes.

"Fine. If you've got something to tell me, then say it, okay?" he said not unkindly, and proceeded to get up. "Where's Suga?"

"Here! Help me out with something really qucikly. And, ah – Kageyama?" Suga's head popped up from the other room.

"Yes?"

"How would you feel if you brought that little crow home and took care of it for the night?"

* * *

"...and so I'm stuck with you for the night," Hinata deadpanned as soon as Kageyama parted ways from his seniors and was alone. The setter gave the crow a glare, who squeaked and hid back in the boy's jacket pockets.

"Do I have to put up with your mumbling the entire time?" he grumbled, and a sharp peck suddenly made itself known on his right hand. " - _OW!"_

"If only I was with that nicer boy instead," came a sigh, and Kageyama growled.

"If you shut up right now, I won't throw you out of my pocket. Got it?"

"Holy frick, that's so mean!" Hinata exclaimed, and proceeded to hop on Kageyama's arm. "You won't actually do that, would you?"

"Try me."

"Oh, fine! Be that person who decides to hurt a poor, injured, adorable - "

"Who even said that you were _adorable?_" the setter scoffed. Hinata huffed indignantly.

"Whatever. Are we even close to your house yet? I'm hungry..."

"Quit your whining. We're here already." Kageyama stopped at the front of his door, and was about to open the front door when the bird suddenly flew out of his pocket.

"YAY!"

"Hey, where are you goi - "

With that, the crow was gone from his sight.

_...what the heck? _Kageyama thought. _Did he just run away?_

A suppressed sigh here and the opening of his door there, and at once Kageyama felt a sense of loneliness. Over an annoying crow who talked.

He was going insane, he knew.

"I'm home..." Kageyama called, and his mom called back from the kitchen.

"Ah, you're back! Better hurry now, I'm almost done with dinner!" she called, and Kageyama gave out a small, genuine smile as he walked up to his room. His mom's cooking was arguably one of the best.

His smile still persisted as he walked into his room, in which he saw -

An orange-haired kid -

Lying on his bed -

Sleeping.

And was it just him, or did the boy have _wings? _And are those _bandages on his left wing_?

Before Kageyama could fully comprehend, the boy opened his startlingly orange eyes, and looked up at him.

"Oh, you're here already!"

…

Ah.

Kageyama knew now.

A crow flew away earlier.

And now he was here.

* * *

**HI YES I'M ALIVE AND NOW I UPDATED IT AFTER 6 MONTHS I'M SORRY -****  
**

**6 months of writing block is the worst. Oh, and thanks to the reviewers and the follows I received in the past too~!**

**I'm bad at writing long chapters, to be honest. But I'll work hard on that, I'll make sure of it!**

**As always, please critique and review! And maybe adding some missing pointers that I can work on can help - because I feel like I'm lacking something, but I don't know what...**

**See you in the next chapter!**


	3. The First Night

**Chapter 3**

Why was he so surprised that things were steadily getting weirder?

**xxx**

Dealing with an annoying, talking crow for a part of the day was one thing.

Seeing it turn into a human and lounge on Kageyama's bed like he was his closest friend was another.

(Wait a minute – a _human?_)

The setter's mind was so blank with shock at the moment, so he managed to surprise even himself with he finally spoke in a low calm voice to the orange-haired boy in front of him. (He _is _human, right? Are humans supposed to have wings?)

"...what are you doing?" he asked. Hinata lightly jumped off his bed and grinned. He twirled around once, as if to check his surroundings, and after gazing around for a second, he turned to Kageyama, his eyes large and expressive. Kageyama thought that he was about to burst out in joy over something, but as soon as he thought that, the other boy's happy expression turned into something that was basically the pure embodiment of disappointment. The setter immediately scowled, going into the defensive. He could already feel the insult coming. _Here comes the spike -_

"What's with that face?" he grumbled. Hinata sighed.

"Your room is so boring."

The deadpan in the smaller boy's voice took Kageyama aback considerably. - _and the block failed. _(Keeping things in a perspective similar to volleyball helped. Sort of.)

Hinata gestured to the walls (a plain white), to the shelves (which held almost nothing but a few scattered volleyball magazines), to the plain bed (in Kageyama's defense, blue is a nice color), to the floor (yes, those are _weights – _and don't forget that volleyball in the corner), and he eventually finished by throwing his arms upward, gesturing to the entire room. "I can already tell that you're a tiny bit too obsessed with volleyball at the moment, but it won't hurt to add a little decoration and, I don't know, some _festive _things in here!"

"How would a freaking _bird _know about decoration and things that, you know, have to do with humans, anyway?" Kageyama shot back. Hinata rolled his eyes.

"You're not the first human I visited, you know!"

"Well, _excuse me - "_

"Kageyama!"

The boys immediately flinched, and a millisecond later, the door to the room opened with Kageyama's mother peering inside. "What's going on in here?" Kageyama gulped. _Oh, crap. _How was he going to explain that a boy with wings had invaded his room? He knew his mother loved him, but he also knew that she would take him to a psychologist without a second thought if he ever said that a freaking _tengu _had been bugging him the entire day, and... well...

"I, uh - "

"Oh, wow! What a cute little bird you have there!"

_What._

Kageyama whirled around to find not an orange-haired kid with wings, but a tiny crow who was ruffling its feathers, looking up at Kageyama's mom with large, curious eyes. His mom, meanwhile, crossed the room in a single stride, and she knelt on the floor and admired the baby crow. She gave it a light tap on the head, and the crow (_**HINATA**_) chirped happily. The setter could only look on with shock and utter confusion.

"Oh, you're so cute!" the said boy's mom cooed, and turned to her son. "Where did you find him?"

A bit taken aback by both his mom's and Hinata's (undoubtedly fast) reaction to the sudden situation (he thought that the trend of animal-attacking-for-simply-being-a-Kageyama was genetic, and apparently it wasn't), Kageyama slumped, scowling a bit.

"I found him next to the vending machine at school, and Suga-senpai told me to take care of him, so..." He trailed off and fidgeted a bit. That _was _the entire truth, anyway. He decided to conveniently leave out the part about that stupid crow turning into a human. Now _that's _going to give his mom the impression of deteriorating mental health.

His mom straightened, unaware of any other facts that Kageyama might have been hiding, and dusted off her pants. "Well, in any case," she spoke, patting her son's head, "at least you've made a new friend! Now come along, dinner's ready, and Dad should be here any minute!" With that, she walked off, humming a cheery tune. As soon as she left, Kageyama swung around to glare at Hinata. The tiny crow flinched for a second, and then stared back indignantly.

"What?" he asked, ruffling his feathers once more. Kageyama huffed and looked away.

"Nothing." Being his usual self, he trudged away and slammed the door to his room, making Hinata jump. The retaliation was immediate.

"_'Nothing,'" _he imitated childishly, making a face, and in a flash of feathers, he turned back into a human and jumped back on Kageyama's bed. He put his arm over his eyes and sighed, his wings folding over him protectively.

"I wonder if I was right."

/

When Kageyama came back up to his room, holding a granola bar in his hand for Hinata to snack on (he didn't _want _the bird kid to starve to death – that's too cruel), he found Hinata back in human form, dozing lightly on his bed. The setter stared at him for a second, his mind blank, and he then resorted to a light kick on Hinata's leg. "Oi, wake up. Don't drool on my bed."

There was a blur of orange hair and black feathers, and Hinata jumped up from the bed, his hair a mess. "W-WHAT?" he spluttered, and Kageyama stared at the state that the other boy was in.

"I leave you for like, what, thirty minutes and it looks like you've been sleeping for hours," he scoffed, and he handed Hinata the granola bar. "Here." The orange-haired boy took the granola bar and inspected it.

"...is this supposed to be good?" he asked a bit tentatively, and Kageyama rolled his eyes.

"I'm supposed to give you food, so that's what you get. Don't complain."

Hinata didn't move for a few seconds, staring at the granola bar, until he finally fidgeted and glanced at Kageyama. "Thanks, I guess..." He turned the granola bar over, and he held it delicately on both ends, his pinky fingers up like he was trying to be fancy.

"This is how humans open the wrapper thing, right?"

Oh.

This guy's human form was seriously throwing him off.

Sighing, Kageyama grabbed the granola bar and opened it for Hinata, who made a noise of awe at the way he easily opened the wrapper. The setter then handed back the granola bar to Hinata, who grabbed it without hesitation this time and gobbled it down with a few gulps.

"Huh, not bad! Say..." Hinata wiped his mouth, grinning.

"What?"

"I'm still hungry. Do you have any mice around here?"

"That's fricking disgusting." The answer was immediate.

The orange-haired boy rolled his eyes and sat down on the ground, propping his head on his arm. "I'm not actually a human, you know! What do you expect me to eat? Those – those meat thingies - "

"Meat thingies."

"Shut up! You know what I mean!"

After much of the pointless bickering that was slowly becoming more and more common, the room was finally silent. Mustering up his courage, Kageyama spoke up, asking the much avoided question.

"What are you even doing here?" he asked, but he surprisingly managed to make the question not sound rude. "I mean, how come you just showed up out of nowhere?"

Hinata blinked at him, and looked down a the ground. "Oh. Er..." He fidgeted, and sighed after a moment's pause. "Well, I might as well tell you. You'd probably believe it anyway, since you've already seen me and all." Kageyama rolled his eyes.

"No kidding. I'd believe anything at this point," he scoffed. Hinata sighed once more.

"Okay, well... I kind of... I kind of ran away."

That answer was too plain compared to what Kageyama had expected, like _I'm actually here to conquer the world, _or something along the lines of that. (He'd been watching too much of the anime that Noya and Tanaka were showing him, seriously.)

Hinata was staring at him, expecting some kind of reaction, but the only thing that Kageyama gave him was a nod.

"Okay? And?"

"Uh, yeah, that's it! I ran away!" He ended the response with a laugh; it had a nervous tone in it, but Kageyama shrugged it off. He probably had imagined it.

"So you ran away. Will anyone go and come looking for you?" he asked. Hinata paled slightly at the question.

"...I hope not," he muttered, putting his head down. Kageyama leaned forward and narrowed his eyes.

"Wait, what - "

"OKAY I'M KIND OF TIRED AND I'LL JUST SLEEP AT THE TREE NEXT TO YOUR HOUSE OKAY? OKAY. GOOD NIGHT!" With the sudden outburst, Hinata suddenly jumped off the bed and out the window, all in no time flat and giving no time for Kageyama to react. The setter was staring at the now empty bed for a few seconds until he blinked and looked around. _Huh?! Where did he go?_

There was a rustling outside his window, and Kageyama ran over and looked outside. The tree directly to the left of the house rustled a bit, and the boy saw a tuft of orange hair sticking out among the leaves. Kageyama sighed. "Well, that was weird."

Maybe he'll learn more about the weird crow boy the next day.


End file.
